Thursday, July 17, 2008

Money makes the map.

WASHINGTON— Barack Obama raised $52 million in June, a sum that far outpaced the fundraising of Republican rival John McCain and promised a wideranging Democratic campaign that will reach into states that previous Democratic candidates had considered unwinnable.

The Obama/DNC COH is $92 million, v. the McCain/RNC's total of $95 million, but with Obama freed from the constraints of public financing and raising money at about double the McCain clip, this may be the last quarter that Republicans can claim an advantage. The DNC itself took in over $22 million in June, as the end of the primary campaign has people looking at needs beyond Presidential candidates.

With some $328 million already raised, Obama has broken all records and established a new campaign finance paradigm. Bush set the old record last cycle with a finance strategy that involved getting dozens of people to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars. Obama has taken the lead with a strategy that involves getting millions of people to give something. The job ahead is to translate that success into a new organizing paradigm that brings a Democratic campaign to new ground, crossing not only geographic borders, but borders of class, race, faith and ideology.

Darcy Burner has outraised incumbent Dave Reichert for a fifth quarter in a row, hauling in $585,000 over the April to June period compared to Reichert’s $347,000. Burner now has $1.25 million cash on hand compared to Reichert’s $916,000.

It should go without saying (but it obviously won't) that both Obama and Burner can be found on the Upper Left ActBlue page.